Student shot at Oregon school

ROSEBURG, Ore. – A high school freshman armed with a handgun shot and wounded a sophomore Thursday morning and then walked to a restaurant, where customers watched in horror as he stood outside and put the gun to his head.

The 14-year-old shooter then surrendered to police.

Students milling around the courtyard at Roseburg High School watched in shock as the teen – using what doctors said was a large-caliber handgun – shot sophomore Joseph Monti, 16, in the chest and abdomen just before classes were to begin, hitting him four times. A doctor reported he was shot from behind.

The school was immediately locked down.

“It was like, `boom, boom, boom, boom,” said sophomore Dalton Hedlund, 15, who was walking out of the cafeteria with friends to go to class when he heard the shots and saw Monti sit on the ground and scream in pain.

“Everyone thought it was a joke,” because there was no blood, Hedlund said. “All the freshmen were like laughing. Are you kidding me? It was pretty scary.”

Police with guns drawn arrived in minutes, and teachers yelled at students to get to the nearest classroom, where they pulled out cell phones and called their families to say they were OK, said Jordan McBee, 17, a junior.

“It was like, shock,” said McBee. “Nothing like this happens in Roseburg.”

The shooter and the victim are students at the high school, said Detective Lt. Pat Moore of the Roseburg Police Department.

The suspect was not identified.

Juvenile Department Director Christina L. McMahan said, based on a police affidavit, the boy would be arraigned today on felony charges of attempted murder, assault, illegal use of a firearm and illegal possession of a firearm. He was held in juvenile detention. Because he is 14, he could not be tried as an adult under Oregon law.

Sgt. Aaron Dunbar said the shooting wasn’t random and that the two knew each other. “We’re trying to come up with what the beef was. But there’s indication there was some problem at some level,” he said.

Dunbar said the shooter walked away from the school, followed by two students who flagged down a police car, and officers followed him about 500 yards to Charley’s BBQ restaurant.

At the restaurant, 35 members of a business group eating breakfast looked outside and saw police cars with their lights and sirens going follow a teenager into the parking lot, said cook Kenny Russell, 26.

When the teen looked through the window and put a gun to his head, customers began diving under tables, Russell said.

Police officers confronted the teen, their guns drawn, Russell said.

When he put his gun down, one of the officers tackled him and he was taken away in handcuffs, Dunbar said.

The victim was listed in serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit at Mercy Medical Center after three and a half hours of surgery.

Hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Nickel said surgeons told her Monti was shot from behind and hit twice in the abdomen and once in the chest, and a bullet grazed his left elbow.

A surgeon talked to Monti, who was conscious when he arrived at the hospital, Nickel said. “He didn’t have any recollection of what occurred,” she said.

A nearby elementary school in the southern Oregon town also was locked down as a precaution.

When asked about possible motives, Moore said police are working on three theories, but he couldn’t divulge them.